Biden, Putin in first face-to-face summit

With deep disagreements likely and expectations of solving them low, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down in a lakeside Geneva villa yesterday for their first summit.

Both have said they hope their talks can lead to more stable and predictable relations, even though they are at odds over everything from arms control and cyber-hacking to election interference and Ukraine. Putin and Biden shook hands before going inside.

"Mr President, I'd like to thank you for your initiative to meet today," Putin said, sitting next to Biden.

"US and Russian relations have a lot of issues accumulated that require the highest level meeting" the Russian leader added.

Biden said they would try to determine areas of cooperation and mutual interest. "It is always better to meet face to face." Aides had earlier downplayed hopes for the summit.

"We're not expecting a big set of deliverables out of this meeting," a senior US official said, adding the leaders were expected to talk for four or five hours.

"I'm not sure that any agreements will be reached," said Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.